TMC thanks, congratulates teacher in residence at close of program

Congratulations to Sheila Marquez, an anatomy teacher at Tucson High Magnet School, who finished her third summer working at Tucson Medical Center as part of the business-education partnership known as Teachers in Industry.

The program allows businesses to gain valuable perspectives by employing teachers over the summer, and allows teachers a chance to see firsthand the kind of skills students need to be effective in future careers.

“I’ve been a teacher and a research assistant for the entirety of my career – I’ve never worked outside of the academic realm,” said Marquez, who has taught high school students for nearly 20 year. “This has been very valuable to learn about the breadth of careers available in health care as students consider their future possible selves.”

Marquez spent her first year at TMC working in infection prevention, her second year working in the lab, and her third year – the culminating year of the program – working in pharmacy.

After her first summer, she implemented a change in her classroom, emulating the one-on-one meetings her manager at TMC held with staff members. “I went back and did one-on-one meetings with each of my students in the first two weeks of class,” she said. “It made a world of difference: Instead of waiting at the end to tell them if they were in trouble with their grades or attendance, we had a chance to be proactive and talk about what might have kept them from being successful in earlier classes and what I could do to help support them.”

Marquez also learned about Lean management processes, which originated in manufacturing but are being used at TMC to empower employees to become problem solvers and to build efficiencies. Some of the problem-solving techniques can be applicable in a science-based classroom, she said.

She said businesses ultimately need students who don’t just regurgitate information, but are critical thinkers and can collaborate successfully with others. “It’s not just about knowing where the tibia is. It’s about having the tools to come up with successful solutions.”

“This has been an invaluable experience,” she said, encouraging other industries to participate in the program.

It has been a positive collaboration for TMC as well, said Pharmacy Technician Manager Sue Weygint.

Weygint credited Marquez with shadowing pharmacy technicians to learn about their processes and workflow, creating Excel spreadsheets and graphs that allowed data mining. “We can now see trends, anomalies and the overall work balance across shifts,” Weygint said, noting the goal is to increase productivity and level the workload.

“We have already made some adjustments with her help and we’re on a path to stronger metrics of productivity and efficiency,” Weygint said.

Master teachers in the program, including Marquez, will be celebrated on Sept. 12 from 5 p.m. -7 p.m. at Tucson Electric Power. For more information about the program, please visit www.teachersinindustry.arizona.edu

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About TMC

Tucson Medical Center, licensed at more than 600 beds, has been Tucson’s locally governed nonprofit regional hospital for more than 70 years.

TMC is Southern Arizona’s leading provider for emergency care and pediatric care (including Tucson’s first Pediatric Emergency Department), with top-notch intensive care units for adults, children and newborns.